Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Martin for his support. We will not agree on all the amendments and that is fine but I thank him for his support. To clarify, the concern is not just what is being counted against one's income in a personal insolvency case. The problem is access to the PIP. The very point of access is that once one's income goes over €60 per month, having paid reasonable living expenses one no longer qualifies. However, one might have a job paying €25,000 or €30,000 and anything within what is called reasonable living expenses will not be counted towards one's income. Reasonable living expenses includes many things such as educational costs, transport costs, the cost of one's mortgage, house or rent if one is renting privately. For somebody who has a reasonably high income, those reasonable living expenses will not be counted in terms of that €60 threshold. One can have all those things but unless one has €60 more than that it will not be counted in terms of the PIP process. The problem is that one could have very much less than that but have the exact same concerns such as feeding one's family, transport costs and maintaining the roof over one's head. If one is relying on a payment to help pay for those basics that all counts in terms of the €60 threshold. That is the fundamental point. There will be debate on those reasonable living expenses and how they are looked at but access is the issue. We know that many families have immense debt. Many of those who may have lost their jobs or had their businesses run into debt and finally close in the past year will not necessarily qualify for the PIP process if, for day-to-day costs, they are finding themselves reliant on social welfare payments.That is the concern. I hope that there is going to be a recognition of the need to address this.